Mihaela disappears during her mobility UNITA journey! Where is she? The students attending the summer school “Intercomprehension in Roman Languages” at UPPA were invited to solve the mystery.
Active learning methods at the heart of UNITA
Game-based learning is booming. UNITA summer schools provide a special opportunity for recreational activities, giving the possibility to learn while having fun. The students who came to Pau in order to practice intercomprehension in Roman languages were able to test their skills in a playful way.
A few words on the making of “Dov’è Mihalea”
The team in charge was composed by two teachers coordinating the summer school, Françoise Hapel and Géraldine Lesparre, and by two instructional designers, Sandra Lalanne and Clara Guilloteau. The teachers defined first the theme, the learning prerequisites and outcomes, and also the logistic details, etc. Then, the instructional designers worked on the making of a serious digital form game. They have chosen to work on Genially, which is an interactive and collaborative platform to create contents like animated presentations. It was particularly useful to create a serious game inspired by realistic scenarios from physical escape games (https://scape.enepe.fr/scapade.html).
Students were enchanted by the idea!
The teaching team split the participants into groups of three to four students speaking different mother languages to develop intercomprehension strategies.
Associating interactive elements, hidden messages, intercomprehension in roman languages, the students had thirty minutes to solve the mystery. The winner group succeeded finding Mihaela in no more than eighteen minutes! It was awarded with a great prize (delicious chocolates)! By the end, there was a debriefing phase to collect the players’opinions thanks to Wooclap, a survey and quizz tool. The teaching team was able to point out some elements to debate on the strategies used and to highlight the fact that a game can be used to complete learning outcomes.
Collection of the players’ opinions
The experience was a success in the opinion of all! This activity could be implemented to inspire new challenges and expand the UNITA actions.
Written by Clara Guilloteau